Toronto FC defeat New York Red Bulls
Toronto FC defeat New York Red Bulls with amazing free kick goal from Sebastian Giovinco, his seventh direct free kick goal of the season.
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY:
TFC – Victor Vazquez 8’
NYRB – Daniel Royer (PK) 45’ + 3’
TFC – Sebastian Giovinco 72’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
NYRB – Damien Perrinelle 80’ (caution)
TFC – Sebastian Giovinco 82’ (caution)
LINEUPS
TORONTO FC – Alex Bono; Eriq Zavaleta, Drew Moor (Nick Hagglund HT), Chris Mavinga; Steven Beitashour, Marco Delgado, Michel Bradley ©, Victor Vazquez (Jonathan Osorio 65’), Justin Morrow; Jozy Altidore (Armando Cooper 86’), Sebastian Giovinco
Substitutes Not Used: Clint Irwin, Raheem Edwards, Nicolas Hasler, Tosaint Ricketts
NY RED BULLS – Luis Robles; Michael Murillo, Aaron Long, Damien Perrinelle (Vincent Bezecourt 82’); Tyler Adams, Sean Davis (Gonzalo Verón 63’), Felipe, Daniel Royer, Kemar Lawrence, Sacha Kljestan; Bradley Wright-Phillips
Substitutes Not Used: Ryan Meara, Connor Lade, Fidel Escobar, Derrick Etienne, Alex Muyl
GREG VANNEY – HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC
You come away with the result that you wanted. Just your thoughts on the way the team played. We defended well in terms of staying together as a group, protecting our box, protecting our goal. We needed to be a little bit better with the ball in transitions, be a little bit better with the ball with possessions. It stopped maybe on the backside. We were a little bit disjointed in our movement. It was a little reactionary, one and two guys moving in at times, but we weren’t really moving as a group. Part of that is their pressure comes fast, you’ve got to be able to move just as quickly as their pressure is arriving. For us, getting a hold of the ball and getting a hold of possession for long stretches just wasn’t there for us tonight, but the guys pulled together, and we kept our shape defensively, and again, protected our goal. There weren’t a ton of things on goal that we gave up, and we found our moments either in transition or on set pieces.
Star players win games, and Sebastian Giovinco’s seventh direct free kick goal of the season. How special is it what you’re seeing from your player at this time?
Yeah, he’s amazing. We talk about it all the time. But the knack to step up in the moment and make a play is what star players do, and he was able to do that again tonight. You know, that’s a weapon you have. The guys know, especially after we got the first goal relatively early, we got the away goal, was a little bit about locking things down, giving up nothing, and giving the opportunities for guys like Seba, Jozy, somebody like Victor to step up and try to make a play and try to get the second one, and that’s ultimately what happened.
New York came out with a little more purpose in the second half. You weather the storm, that must be something to be happy about, too.
Yeah, we figured it was coming. I mean, they were down and they were going to come out and they had to do something in the second half to try to turn it a little bit. So it’s not surprising. They’re an aggressive team. That’s the way they play. We just were caught a little bit at times backing up or on our heels a little bit, and so it made some of our transitions difficult. But again, we stayed together. We are as good a defending team as we are attacking team, and tonight we utilized that as our method of getting the result.
Any word on the injuries to Drew and Victor?
Nothing specific in terms of prognosis or anything. Victor took a hip into the hip roughly, and so he was just a little sore. We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow. And Drew rolled his ankle a little bit. I’m not sure how much. He was walking around. It looked like he was okay, just wasn’t in the right — didn’t feel good enough to be able to play the second half and give us what we needed.
What did you think of the penalty call?
I haven’t seen it back yet. What do you guys think?
Soft. There was contact. What do you think of the — what happened on the play with Victor? Looked like Felipe might have got him away from the ball, threw a hip into his midsection.
Yeah, I did see a replay of that, just so you guys know. But Victor took a little touch to sidestep him, and as he took that touch, then Felipe did a little body block on him, a little hip check, and that’s what caught Victor in a place you don’t really want to get caught too often. So that was that. I thought it was a foul for what it’s worth, but at the end of the day, it is what it is.
Nick hasn’t played all that much, but coming in at the end of the second half for Drew, it seemed like he settled in pretty quickly and was a pretty important player for you guys.
Yeah, Nick has been great for us. Unfortunately his season has just been off and on with injuries. And the timing of his return was tough because we were just in the final stretch of the year, and so it just was tough for him to break in. But he’s a guy who’s been in this environment. He was a big part of why we got to the finals last year, and so we knew if we needed him, he would be ready. I like him in the middle. I thought he did a nice, solid job. He wins a lot of things in the air, and his athleticism is a nice addition when he comes in. Drew is a more cerebral communicator talking to everybody around him. Nick utilizes his athleticism to make plays, so it’s just a different view, but both of them are very good.
How big of an advantage are the two away goals?
You know, we like having them, but there’s still 90 minutes to play, and we’ll find out how big of an advantage they are once we get to the end of the next game. But it’s good to go home with some advantage and now it’s important that our group realizes, as they did when we came in, that they’re only halfway there, and they still have a lot of work to do to try to close this out.
Jozy didn’t get on the score sheet, but he was involved in both goal sequences. What did you think of what he gave you tonight?
I thought Jozy was outstanding. I mean, he played big, he played physical, and days where you’re not getting out in transition all that great, you need somebody who you can target, who you can play off of, who can hold the ball, you can who can bring people in. Jozy gave us some runs into channels that allowed us some things, so his contribution was huge. It wasn’t, again, on the scoreboard, but I think Jozy is more than that. We’ve learned that over the years, that Jozy is the consummate team guy. He’ll do whatever he needs to do on the day, and he doesn’t get too caught up on how many goals he scores. We needed him to be the big guy today, and he was great.
How much does the fact that you have that goal advantage factor into it as you evaluate Victor and think whether you would maybe be a little cautious?
None. However they are, we will determine in terms of whether they are available to play or not. It’s going to be more on their condition than the results.
As this run gets going, how much pressure is there on you guys to go and win the whole thing, and for those of us who aren’t in Toronto witnessing it, how does that pressure get made on you guys because there is a lot of criticism around the league that there isn’t enough pressure on the players, but Toronto seems to be a different beast.
I think there’s a lot of expectation from the group. I think every year you play in Toronto, I think the guys have felt the expectation. We’ve learned over the last few years how to manage expectation, how to utilize that in terms of our performances. This year I think with the team doing well during the course of the season, we’ve learned a lot about playing from the front, and now a lot of people want to put the label of favorite on us. I guess in some ways we have earned that through the regular season.
But I think the group understands what it means to play from the front. They’re motivated. They want to win. They lost last year in the finals, and I think that pressure is more than anything anybody could put on the outside of us. This group has a lot of pressure that they put on each other to perform in training and perform every day that they step out on the field.
You may only have one away game left this season. Do you think opposition fans may want to rethink booing Bradley and (indiscernible)? It seems to be music to their ears. Yeah, again, I think we knew it was coming. I think fans can express themselves how they want. I think there’s a certain number of fans who maybe have a real purpose for it, and then I think a lot of other people are doing it because it’s the thing to do. Whatever motivates them, our guys, I’m perfectly comfortable with. I think, like I said, these guys are out on a mission to make sure that they win the next game and give themselves a chance in the next series. One game at a time for us.
You have the two away goals and you have the best home record. Is there a challenge (indiscernible)?
No, no, because it is — they understand the repercussions for not showing up on the day. This league is unforgiving. The playoffs are unforgiving. Again, a year ago we lost in the finals, and everybody — we brought 19 guys back from that team, and every one of those guys remembers exactly what it was like the day that that game ended and we didn’t do what we wanted to do.
That’s been their motivation all year. I think that as we return back to Toronto, there won’t be a sense of taking their foot off the gas.
The other thing is tonight was a very tough game. It was not like we came out and by any stretch of the imagination were blowing the doors off of it. But I think the first playoff game is always a tough playoff game. They were able to get one under their belt in Chicago. This was our first one. So we were able to take that in and hopefully utilize that as we come back home.
There’s been a lot of attention on goalkeepers in this league, but what did you make of Alex’s performance?
Yeah, I think Alex is a very good young goalkeeper, and I think ever since we’ve given him an opportunity that he’s grown with the experiences that he’s gained. He’s learned to make good decisions. He’s been a good shot stopper ever since we’ve put him in there. He makes big saves. He’s continuing to learn because he’s a young goalkeeper, but he’s got a lot of trust from myself and from his teammates, and we’ve seen him step up periodically when he’s had to throughout the course of the year, so we don’t expect anything different in the playoffs.
I look forward to his continued growth. More and more of these games like this are just going to help him to be even a better goalkeeper. Obviously Luis has been through a lot of these and a lot more experience, and Luis is a great goalkeeper, as well. As long as they’re just working every day to try and get to that other level.
ALEX BONO – GOALKEEPER, TORONTO FC
On His Overall Performance
“I thought we had a really good performance tonight. I thought we were very solid defensively. We knew we’d be up at third, up against for possibly long stretches today, and we were. We bent, we didn’t break and those are the kind of performances we’re going to need to go far in this playoff run.”
On His Confidence Tonight
“Obviously to me, it’s the job of a goalkeeper to be vocal and to make sure everyone’s focused and to make sure I give us the best chance to keep the ball in the back of the net. And that comes with organizing them and making sure they’re in the right spots and also doing my job as well from just a goalkeeper perspective. I thought as a whole, we had a good performance today. Nick (Hagglund) came out and played really solidly and to have a guy like that to be able to come off the bench and really make a difference like he did, it was really special.”
On Bradley Wright-Phillips Having Space in the Back Line
“I knew he was looking at the ball the whole time. No matter where his touch is, I know that I have the opportunity to be right on top of it. Only a touch backwards could really take him away from the pressure and I knew that the defenders would be recovering for that. For me, just to be there and be able make an impact on the ball as soon as he had a chance to look up, that was what was kind of going through my mind. He’s not going to have enough time to touch this ball, look at the goal and then have a shot. My goal is to make sure he wouldn’t have enough time.”
MICHAEL BRADLEY – MIDFIELDER, TORONTO FC
On Tonight’s Result
“Very good result. I felt the way we went about it was good. These games take on a life of their own. They’re so different than games over the course of the regular season. You have to embrace that. You can’t think that everything you do in the regular season is going to translate the same way on these types of nights. I think we have a group that understands that. We know over the course of a game we’re going to have our moments to play and put plays together. Especially in a first leg on the road against a team like that, you know it’s going to be physical, you know they’re going to do so much to try to make the game fast, hectic, and do whatever they can to disrupt things. I thought we handled it in a good way and to come away with a win and two away goals is great. Now we have to go back home and finish the job.”
On the Team’s Confidence/Going Home With a Result
“Yeah, for sure. You have to know how to win on different type of nights in different ways. I think we’ve shown we can do that. Again, these are different kind of games and the teams that understand that, the teams that don’t let that phase them, are typically the ones who give themselves the best chance. It’s a great result, but it’s only half-way done. We’re not celebrating anything yet. We understand that we have to go back to Toronto in front of our fans on Sunday afternoon and play in a way from the beginning that ultimately means they have no chance.
On Playing in a Physically and Mentally Tough Away Match
“If you want to be the team holding the trophy in the end, then you have to deal with these kinds of nights. It can’t phase you. You have to have a group that accepts the challenge, that embraces it, that goes for it and finds ways to win. They’re not the prettiest games always. But, to get to the biggest games you have to know how to navigate these ones.”
On Whether He Expects a Goal from Giovinco from Dead-Ball Situations
“We’re probably getting pretty close.”
JESSE MARSCH – HEAD COACH, NEW YORK RED BULLS
I know the possession numbers and corners and chances and everything kind of tilt in your advantage, but it seemed like a match where they were willing to sit back, absorb the pressure, stifle things and really in particular hurt you guys in transition and keep you from playing the free-flowing way you wanted to play.
Yeah, I mean, they clearly wanted us to have the ball and then wanted us to turn the ball over in the middle of the field and then catch us on the counter. It took us far too long to figure that out, and we were trying to get the message out on the field, but it wasn’t clear enough, I think, and so it took us too long. But we have a bad first half and walk in at halftime 1-1. So you know, given everything, at that point you feel like, okay, we can gather some momentum and now put it into the second half. But we know that Giovinco is good from that spot, so we don’t want him to run free in that spot, we don’t want him to be fouled in that spot, and then we wanted somebody to drop on the post and they didn’t get there, so then it’s 2-1.
So yeah, not a good performance from us. Not a good performance from us, and disappointing in such a big match, but that being said, it’s halftime. There’s still some — still some left to this game, as crappy as it feels right now. We still have a lot to play for.
Speaking of which, given how difficult Toronto has been at home this year, losing only once, what sort of an uphill battle does your team face on Sunday?
Well, if we had a big hill to climb before, we’ve got a mountain now. But so what? That’s what the playoffs are. It’s not supposed to be easy. It won’t ever be easy. Obviously we’ve made it even more difficult on ourselves, but whatever. We’re going to go there with — we wanted to have a little bit more of a nothing-to-lose mentality tonight, and I felt we played very tight, and for sure, now we’re going there, we’ve got nothing to lose. I know they’re very good at home. I know it’s a very tough place to play. I know the stadium will be sold out. I know they’re the best team in the league, but so what? So what? Let’s go there and go fight for it.
I was wondering if you could talk about the way the team started the game. Obviously against Chicago, a lot of high energy, got right after it. Why the slow start tonight?
Don’t know. Wouldn’t have predicted it, didn’t see it coming, didn’t expect so many sub-par performances from our guys. Didn’t expect us to lack explosiveness. So caught me by surprise, quite honestly. But sometimes in big games, that’s the way it goes. We’ve got to regroup and then throw more at it come Sunday.
For all the good things — obviously great things Luis has done, that first goal, was that a little bit on him?
I don’t know, maybe he could have punched it a little more, but I mean, we lose a bad ball, we get beat too easy. It’s a good whip ball in the box. Those are ones that always are difficult for goalkeepers to deal with. You know, and then it winds up going to their guy, and then you have a good finisher in Vazquez when he collects the ball, and he does a good job.
For me to focus on any one play wouldn’t be the right way to look at this. I mean, there’s so many little things in the game that we don’t do well enough, that we don’t look enough like ourselves. We go through a stage in the second half where maybe we start to get a little bit of momentum going, but just not enough belief, not enough belief in our guys, and then that led to too many shaky performances.
I was going to ask you about the second goal. Do you think there was a miscommunication between your players because it looks like some of them, they were out of position.
Well, we lost track of — Murillo lost track of Giovinco, so then we had to track back and try and slow him down, and then it led to a foul. So it was a little bit of a soft foul, but I thought the ref did a good job. I thought the ref did a good job.
Yeah, not good enough.
You said your guys were slow to realize what was going on in the first half. The second half you did come out, passes were a little off, but what did you change at halftime that managed to right the ship, so to speak?
Well, part of it was encouraging them to have — to be braver, and then the other part was helping them understand that trying to shove balls into the middle of the field was not going to reward us because they were — that’s exactly what they were trying to do.
Yeah, I mean, again, it’s hard — I’m a little perplexed. I’m a little unsure as to why we were so unsure, and we’re going to find a way to correct that, and then when we go up there on Sunday, we’ve got to find a way to throw everything we have at it.
You’ve been talking now for a few weeks about this team being an underdog team. It’s not going to get much more of an underdog than it will this weekend.
Yes, we are now like the 1980 hockey team times five. Okay, that’s all right. It’s only halftime. It’s only halftime.
As someone else said, you guys kind of came out with a little more aggression in the second half. Do you take any of that performance with you to Toronto? Is there any silver lining from this?
Yeah, listen we’ll look at some video and we’ll look at what they were trying to accomplish and we’ll think about some of those things. I don’t think we were too surprised by anything they did, we just weren’t able to — we weren’t able to be sharp enough and execute enough of our game plan. The game was played on their terms, right; they sat back, they let us have the ball, they waited for turnovers, they went on the counter, and we fed into that, as well. We didn’t recognize what was happening quick enough. We made some little adjustments at halftime to help the game, but it’s got to take also players on the field recognizing what’s happening and then executing. I mean, because there were other little things built in that if they came at us a little more, if they sat back a little more. But in the end we hurt ourselves by not really going after it, by not really being brave and fearless and going after it. That’s what really hurt us.
Does that mean you’re going to have to change the lineup a little bit, maybe a different formation, maybe put in Veron to start, maybe have him up top with Bradley?
Yeah, I think all those things will be on the table, right. I’ve got to get with my staff, we’re going to have to get to the source of which guys are going to really go out there and give us our best chance, and then what that means from a tactical perspective and how to use those pieces in the best manner. You know, listen, it’s not — like our team has fought so hard all year, and they’re such good young men, and today they let themselves down, right, but it’s my job to make sure that they’re going to not just say that we’re up for it but really be up for it when we get to Toronto, and who knows, if things — if we have a good start and get after the game a little bit, then who knows what can happen.
SACHA KLJESTAN – MIDFIELDER, NEW YORK RED BULLS
On if the team played too tight
“One-Hundred percent. I feel exactly the same way Jesse does. He spoke to us after the game and I couldn’t agree more. We are playing against the best team in league history pretty much and we should have nothing to lose. We go into that game and we play a little scared; pressure is on us and we bottle it up. We don’t perform the way we did against Chicago five days ago.”
On Sunday’s second leg
“We’ve got to push early, we need two goals. Getting the first goal will be important; it will tighten things up for them. I would just like us to see us push the game for 90 minutes and if we go down, let’s go down swinging.”
On Toronto’s game plan
“I feel like I figured it out in the first two minutes of the game, but we need more guys in the field to figure it out on their own. They wanted to clog the middle of the field, it was pretty obvious. A lot of passes that were tight into me were intercepted. We need to recognize that faster and hopefully we can be better at that in Toronto.”
LUIS ROBLES – GOALKEEPER, NEW YORK RED BULLS
On the result
“We played against a good team and they found a way to capitalize on some mistakes that were made. There were some good moments in the game and I thought we could get out of here with a tie, a fair result, but of course [Sebastian] Giovinco’s free-kick was the difference. When I think about the game, just personally, having a chance to look at the first goal, I wish I would have done better. Maybe do everything I can to bottle it up or find a way to just let it ride in a way so it goes wide in the box instead of going back into the middle. Nonetheless, I feel like our response was pretty good.
On the free-kick
“So as you can see he is pretty good at these things, the way that we had set it up is that, one thing is we were thinking for sure is we don’t want to get beat ‘keeper side. If he was going to beat us it was going to be over the wall or to the side of the goal that the wall was defending. We wanted to build a smaller wall with guys in the box and maybe blur the line of slight and then we drop [Michael] Amir [Murillo]. Amir was simply just dropping and timing and doing his best to get to the near post and even with that. I’ll have to look at it again but maybe Amir was a little late, slow to react, but of course this guy has the ability to put the ball over the wall so cleanly and so low and its the most amazing part. It doesn’t go up to high and doesn’t clear the wall by much. It’s ridiculous.”
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